Serving up solutions

With operations in the U.S., Latvia, and China, LightPath Technologies (Orlando, FL) has established itself as a leader in precision molding optics. Of course, like any technology company, LightPath has repeatedly reinvented itself throughout its life cycle. In recent years, it once again pushed the boundaries with an expansion into infrared optics with the acquisition of ISP Optics.

“Historically, the only materials when producing infrared optics were based on mined materials and crystal grow, limiting fabrication possibilities,” says LightPath CEO Sam Rubin. “ A synthetic glass opens up the opportunities including production scaling, the ability to fine-tune parameters. We saw a great opportunity in leveraging our leadership position in molded optics to produce precision molded infrared glass components. Instead of processing a germanium board from China, we can melt and process synthetic glass directly into the shape of the final or near-final elements.”

Before joining LightPath, Rubin spent roughly 15 years with Thorlabs. In that time, Rubin has witnessed a significant change in the customer base for optics and photonics. “What was initially 80% research/20% optical designers has flipped almost completely. While the research continues to grow, it has become less dominant,” he says. “With it also came a significant change in the dynamics of customers. That’s exponential growth in number of customers in the industry.”

The shift? A significant number of today’s optics and photonics customers are engineers integrating these technology products and components into much larger systems. One key point of significance is these engineers are no longer strictly focused on optics or photonics. “Instead, these are a few of the technology components out of many they ultimately need to achieve their end goal,” he says. “It represents a very significant change in the industry structure—and it needs to be accompanied with a change in supply chain structure.”

Today, optics are just a portion of the bill of material, maybe even less than 20%, explains Rubin. “Today’s customer does not want to manage 500 vendors in optics. They don’t have time to understand who does what, and who’s best with which material or coatings,” he says. They want a partner to bring domain expertise to them.”

This is also the direction LightPath is taking, transitioning from being a component manufacturer to providing solutions.

Keys to success

There are a few different aspects to successfully transitioning.

The right team. Having a proper technological team with mechanical, electronics, and software engineering knowledge. LightPath always designed its own machinery, so it ended up with a strong engineering team, which is uncommon for component fabrication companies.

Value equation. The second part is to create and demonstrate the long-term value for customers. “If you tell me you want a camera that can see 10 miles down the road with resolution, there may be 10 different approaches,” Rubin says. “The best way is suitable to other considerations including weight, resolution, environmental conditions, etc.” Success here is about carefully understanding what differentiates design A from design B—and owning the technologies that make the difference is key. “If you look at LightPath’s exclusive license from the U.S. government for free space, optical communication devices, it uses differentiating technologies allowing the company to design and deliver better solutions,” he says. “It’s also where we create value.”

Change is always challenging, and although Rubin is focused on the company’s strategic direction, he also recognizes the need to pay the bills in the short term. “We’re still mostly a component manufacturer, yet we are also leveraging our manufacturing capabilities to develop complete solutions,” he says. “Fortunately, we are starting to establish ourselves in the solution space with solid market traction.”

Of course, solution-based opportunities understandably progress on a much different timeline than component fabrication. When making a component, customers bring their designs looking for a fabricator. Even when the design is truly custom, the timeline is often measured in weeks.

Conversely, when designing a complete solution, it means entering the process numerous steps before the manufacturing phase. “If the end product is an infrared imaging solution for the aerospace and defense industry, it could be two-three years before starting production. And even then, it could be low volume," he says. “Having balance between quick production and solution development is crucial.”